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September 28, 2016

“Everyone told me my clothes didn’t fit, even my friends.”[1] So says celebrated designer Thom Browne, whose name is synonymous with the shrunken suit tailoring that has become the standout menswear trend of the past decade. Though he is now considered a darling of the fashion industry, his unusual take on classic tailoring was initially met with resistance. But Browne knew there was a market for his designs – he envisioned “the businessman who wants to look both conservative and cool,”[2] and transformed his personal style into a successful global label.

Fashion was not Browne’s immediate calling. As one of seven children raised in a Catholic family in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Browne learned the benefits of routine, self-discipline, and hard work early on – he is known for eating the same breakfast every day, ritual morning runs, and a sophisticated yet sparsely decorated apartment.[3] Browne’s entire education took place at private schools, wearing the schoolboy uniform that now defines his brand’s aesthetic. He studied business at Notre Dame, but felt called to the arts; he tried acting in Los Angeles for a few years, and spent time in between auditions altering vintage men’s suits and learning the art of tailoring from Libertine designer Johnson Hartig.[4] His official introduction into the fashion business was a job in the Georgio Armani showroom in New York, and later as part of the design team for Ralph Lauren’s Club Monaco.[5]

By the time he launched his label in 2001, Browne had a clear concept for his business. The years spent among California’s casual dress code only heightened his desire to provide a provocative interpretation of classic mid-century male style, impeccably tailored and undeniably cool.[6] Browne’s designs were radical in a time when laidback fashion dominated. When everyone else is wearing jeans and a T-shirt, “actually putting on a jacket is the anti-Establishment.”[7] He was and continues to be his own best spokesperson; at the start of his business, he made five versions of his signature suit and wore it all over New York to attract the attention of potential buyers.[8] Browne remains devoted to the rumpled oxford shirt, skinny tie, shrunken blazer, and pants tailored above the ankle – a uniform of sorts also worn by those who work for him. Eventually, the naysayers were proved wrong when Browne connected with his target audience. Customers enthusiastically embraced his quietly innovative designs and appreciated the fine tailoring and craftsmanship.

April 22, 2014

Happy 76th birthday to Issey Miyake, born on April 22, 1938! In celebration of the designer's birthday, we offer this provocative Issey Miyake orange and white ensemble.

Suit Spring/Summer 2001 Issey Miyake Museum Purchase 2003.5.7AB

Issey Miyake (b. 1938) learned impeccable dressmaking skills at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne in 1965. Yet in the wake of the decade's mounting social discord and political unrest, he came to believe that the bastion of haute couture was no longer relevant to postmodern lifestyles. Miyake opened his Tokyo design studio in 1970, focused on creating ready-to-wear clothing. "Sometimes my clothes are radical, probably sometimes challenging, but I try not to fear radical things," he explained.1

Miyake's Spring/Summer 2001 menswear collection was termed "Pneumatic pret-a-porter" by the fashion press due to the air-filled padding built into many of the garments. This vivid ensemble was inspired by American football uniforms. The blazer is constructed of printed nylon mesh generally reserved for team jerseys; the knickers contain inflatable plastic bladders inserted over the outer thighs and knees to mimic players' protective gear. The clothing morphs the wearer's body into that of a sports hero, enlarging his frame into an imposing physique while cushioning it to withstand the blows of stressful urban living.

February 27, 2014

In today's post, Associate Curator Christina Johnson takes us to Bendigo, Australia. As we've described here and here, we spent much of 2013 preparing Modern Love for exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery in Bendigo, Australia. In this post, Christina offers her perspective on this experience, including a chance meeting with a baby kangaroo. Stay tuned for an upcoming post featuring a behind-the-scenes look at deinstalling Modern Love.

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In March 2011, Curator Kevin Jones traveled to the Bendigo Art Gallery (BAG) in Bendigo, Australia, to install a costume from the FIDM Museum Collection worn by Grace Kelly in The Swan (1956) for the exhibition Grace Kelly: Style Icon. After chatting with the director and curators there, and sending them a copy of our 2011 publication FABULOUS! Ten Years of FIDM Museum Acquisitions, 2000-2010, they expressed interest in developing an exhibition focused on contemporary fashion derived from the FIDM Museum.

This collaboration between BAG and FIDM Museum curatorial staff resulted in our first international traveling exhibition: Modern Love: Fashion Visionaries from the FIDM Museum LA, which opened on October 26, 2013. It included over sixty mannequins and accessories spanning Punk to the present. Among the designers represented are: Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, Christian Francis Roth, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen, and Thom Browne. Large video projections of corresponding runway shows appear on the walls. A publication filled with runway images from the FIDM Museum’s Michel Arnaud Photography Archive was also published and includes essays by BAG and FIDM Museum curators.

Christina Johnson, Kevin Jones, and Danielle Killam at the Modern Love opening party

October 29, 2013

Cristobal Balenciaga was such a giant in the world of haute couture, it's no surprise that his namesake house went into decline after his retirement in 1968. For decades the brand was largely dormant, though the name survived by virtue of Balenciaga's reputation and the production of branded perfumes. Though his haute couture salons were closed, Balenciaga's influential legacy was undiminished. Museum exhibitions celebrated his creations and designers mentored by Balenciaga, including Courrèges, Ungaro, de la Renta, and Givenchy, became successful. Though investors attempted to revive the brand beginning in the late 1980s, Balenciaga languished until Nicolas Ghesquière became creative director in the late 1990s.

October 16, 2013

Today's post is courtesy of Ilana Winter, our Temp. Assistant Registrar. In this post, Ilana describes the process of crating our beloved Alexander McQueen Peacock dress for travel to the Modern Love exhibit in Bendigo, Australia. Read on for a wonderful overview of this fascinating, labor-intensive project.

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Approximately 7,937 miles lie between the FIDM Museum in Los Angeles and the Bendigo Art Gallery in Bendigo, Australia. That distance equates to roughly 132,283 football fields, a 16 1/2-hour flight, and about half a million gummy bears laid out head-to-toe. Transporting objects from our museum to other institutions always
requires intricate packing techniques to ensure the pieces’ safety. Our upcoming collaborative exhibition with the Bendigo Art Gallery, Modern Love: Fashion Visionaries from the FIDM Museum LA, will display nearly a hundred of our most exquisite contemporary objects. Considering how far the extraordinary (and also delicate) objects had to travel, the packing process
was remarkable. One object that went to Australia is the Alexander McQueen
Peacock dress from his Fall/Winter 2008-2009 collection. Here’s the story about how our piece went from “The Girl Who Lived in a Tree” to “The Girl Who Flew in a Crate.”

McQueen’s Peacock dress is a stunning example of his craftsmanship, creativity, and consistent nods to the United Kingdom’s rich history. Inspired by British Colonialism, the Indian Empire, and both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, the dress’s sculptured ruffles and confronted peacock lace motif stood out as a showstopper when it walked down the runway. To better understand the design, check out our previous post on the gown. The dress, which we commissioned from the Alexander McQueen atelier, was constructed on a Schlappi mannequin. Because the piece is permanently dressed on the mannequin, we had to pack it in a special way.

October 01, 2013

Headed down under? Don’t miss Modern Love: Fashion Visionaries from the FIDM Museum LA, an exhibition of visionary late-20th & 21st century fashion from the FIDM Museum collection. Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia, will be the exclusive venue for this show, the first travelling exhibition of its kind from the FIDM Museum, Los Angeles. In today's post, Brenna Barks, contract preparator for the exhibition, describes the origins of this unique collaboration, shares exhibition highlights, and reveals her favorite elements of the exhibition.

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The story begins in Australia in early 2012. Kevin Jones, FIDM Museum’s
curator, was at the Bendigo Art Gallery in Victoria, Australia, installing a gown worn by Grace Kelly for the exhibit Grace Kelly: Style Icon. FIDM Museum's FABULOUS! exhibit had recently closed and the folks at Bendigo were so excited by
Kevin's descriptions of the exhibit, they decided to bring some of the pieces to Bendigo.
And so Modern Love: Fashion Visionaries
from the FIDM Museum LA
was born. It is also how I find myself writing for the FIDM Museum blog, having
just finished a contract position as a preparator for this exhibit’s
shipment to Australia.

Modern Love features 92 objects from the FIDM Museum’s permanent collection, and examines post-punk fashion through the work of the world’s most influential designers over the last 40 years. The exhibit features both garments and
ephemera, with haute couture alongside casual and ready-to-wear. The work of
Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm McLaren, Alexander McQueen, Issey Miyake, Gianni Versace,
Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan and John Galliano for Christian Dior, Karl Lagerfeld for
both Chanel and Chloë, Rei Kawakubo, and a Thom Browne men’s
ensemble straight off the Fall/Winter 2013/2014 runway, among others, will be
on display in Bendigo, Australia from 26 October 2013 until 2 February 2014. Bendigo Art Gallery will also host a slew of exhibition related programs, including two presentations by Kevin Jones.

Vivienne Westwood's "Rocking Horse" shoes on the runway, C. 1987 – 1992. FIDM Museum's pair of "Rocking Horse" shoes will be featured in Modern Love. Photograph by Michel Arnaud.

February 07, 2013

Miuccia Prada (b. 1949) received a PhD in political science from the University of Milan, but altered the course of her life by entering the world of fashion. She is a major collector of modern art—a passion reflected in collaborations with emerging talents, such as artist James Jean (b. 1979), who drew enchanted forests filled with fairies, insects, and orchids for Prada's Spring/Summer 2008 line. Jean's sinuous illustrations were enlarged as a backdrop for the fashion show and advertising campaign, in addition to being printed on clothing, purses, and shoeboxes. His fantasy world came to life in Trembled Blossoms, a short animated film produced to correspond with the Prada collection. Transformation and fragility pervade the movie: a naked, nymph-like woman emerges from an orchid to be dressed in a complete Prada wardrobe by magical forest creatures that morph into clothing. Orchids blossom on the heels of this pair of pumps; their glossy sheen suggests hand-painted porcelain. The rich floral palette and girlish bows continue the theme of enchanting female charm.

October 24, 2012

With the 2012 presidential election less than 2 weeks away, political discourse is inescapable. The candidates, their positions, and rabid speculation on the outcome of the upcoming election dominate the news. For some people, political beliefs are a private topic, something to be kept under wraps. Others choose to express their beliefs, political or otherwise, via sartorial billboard, also known as the T-shirt. Inexpensive to produce and easy to wear, T-shirts are the perfect medium to broadcast opinions, ideas and beliefs to friends and strangers. Whatever your party affiliations, there's surely a T-shirt, hat, coffee mug, or bumper sticker promoting your candidate.

Jeremy Scott2004Museum Purchase2004.5.46

In 2004, designer Jeremy Scott created this T-shirt with a slogan encouraging voter participation. Based on the iconic 1970s "God Save the Queen" T-shirt
design by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, Scott's T-shirt
incorporates an American political figure, then President George W.
Bush. During the 2004 election, incumbent President George Bush and
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry vied for the highest political office in the United States. After a close race, President Bush was reelected for a second term.

September 14, 2012

FABULOUS! opened one year ago this week! To celebrate, we're taking a look back at the exhibition via a brief video. Short and sweet, it takes you inside the exhibition for a chance to revist your favorite pieces. You'll even see some pieces that have yet to be published on our blog. Can you spot Elsa Schiaparelli's shocking pink evening jacket, Alexander McQueen's peacock dress, Gianni Versace's safety-pinned leather ensembles and Adrian's brown taffeta evening gown?

For those of you who want a tangible reminder of FABULOUS!, we still have a few copies of the exhibition catalogue available at the FIDM Museum Shop. Enjoy the video and have a wonderful weekend!

July 31, 2012

6th Annual Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design July 31-October 20, 2012Tuesday–Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pmFREE and open to the public.

Join us in celebrating the work of television costume designers at the 6th Annual Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design exhibition. Featuring costumes from a variety of television genres, the exhibition spotlights the role of costume design in creating believable onscreen characters. See costumes from your favorite television shows, including Pretty Little Liars, Once Upon a Time, Hemingway & Gelhorn, Game of Thrones, Great Expectations, Downton Abbey,The Fresh Beat Band, Pan Am, Boardwalk Empire, and more! The exhibition is organized by costume designer Mary Rose, current president of the Costume Designers Guild. Curator and Docent tours are available; email docent@fidmmuseum.org for more information.

Here's a look at some of the costumes featured in the exhibition AND highlights from the opening night party. Enjoy!